Top-ranked Huskies roll to win over Seton Hall

Published 1:00 am, Sunday, February 12, 2006

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Seton Hall fans gave up long before the Pirates did Saturday night, not that it would've changed anything.

After holding Seton Hall to nine field goals in the second half, No. 1 UConn buried the Pirates, 99-57, on Saturday night at the
Continental Airlines Arena
for its 11th straight victory. The game also marked UConn's 19th win over the Pirates in the last 21 meetings.

With the game tied at 26 early, the Huskies (22-1, 9-1) blew the ceiling off this gym with a 53-14 run that carried over into the second half.
Rudy Gay
knocked down a 3-pointer for a 79-40 lead with 9:21 to play and the shock waves were everywhere.

Gay and
Rashad Anderson
each had 18 points to finish as the game's top scorers.
Marcus Williams
added 15 points and 10 assists for a double-double, followed by

Jeff Adrien
with 12 points. Adrien also had eight of UConn's 60 rebounds

The Huskies led by as many as 46 points in the second half, after
Marcus Johnson
scored on a layup to make it 95-49 with 2:25 remaining.

The blowout sets up a Big East Conference showdown with No. 4 Villanova (19-2, 9-1) on Monday night at the
Wachovia Center
in Philadelphia. The Wildcats held up their end of the bargain Saturday with a 61-51 victory at DePaul.

But on a night when the UConn coaches wore khakis and long-sleeved golf shirts to raise awareness for Coaches vs. Cancer, the Huskies were all business.

UConn turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 48-33 bulge two possessions into the second half on a dunk by Gay and a 3-pointer by Anderson, one of 10 for the game for the Huskies.

There were still 18 minutes to play here, but the game was already over. Just ask the fans, who had already started to trickle up the steps.

Seton Hall guard
Jamar Nutter
interrupted the barrage with a jump shot at 17:09 to play, but UConn didn't miss a beat, let alone, a basket.

The Huskies extended their lead to 74-40 on a basket by
Denham Brown
with 11 minutes to play. Seton Hall coach
Louis Orr
called a timeout, but he would've had better luck calling the cavalry.

Although the Pirates (15-7, 6-4) saw their six-game winning streak snapped, Seton Hall proved they are better than the team that was picked to finish 15th in the Big East's preseason poll.

Well, except for this game. And yet, the biggest test of the season for the Pirates didn't start out that way.

Seton Hall made five of its first six shots to take an early 11-7 lead. Nutter and
Kelly Whitney
led the first wave of scoring for the Pirates with four points each.

But the euphoria didn't last long.

UConn outscored Seton Hall, 17-4, over the next eight minutes to pull ahead, 24-15.
Hilton Armstrong
capped the run with a putback as a sign of things to come.

Just when the Huskies were laying the foundation for a rout, Williams fouled Seton Hall guard
Donald Copeland
on a 3-point attempt. Unfortunately for UConn, the ball went in and Copeland went to the line for a four-point play.

Copeland finished with 17 points and seven assists to lead Seton Hall. Nutter added 13 points as the team's only other scorer in double figures.

Suddenly, it was 24-19 and the Pirates were surging, if only briefly.

Seton Hall wing
Brian Laing
made it a three-point game with an alley-oop dunk from Copeland. Add a 3-pointer by Nutter and a layup by Copeland, and just like that, the game was tied at 26.

But with redemption on his mind, Williams drilled two straight 3-pointers to spark a 17-7 spurt to end the first half with a 43-33 lead.

Williams led the Huskies at halftime with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Armstrong and Gay were right behind him with nine points each in the first half.

But with 20 minutes to play, the real storm raged inside the Continental Airlines Arena, not in the dark skies outside of it.

"Look on the bright side," a Seton Hall fan said to his buddy after the game. "Four days until pitchers and catchers."

The game also marked the debut of former UConn forward
Kevin Freeman
on the bench as a volunteer assistant. Freeman is back on campus finishing up his degree, according to UConn coach
Jim Calhoun
.